San Antonio-based 210 Developers has plans to build a multifamily community in an area where the firm expects to see growing demand for apartments.

Located about six miles from the Texas A&M University — San Antonio campus at the Mission del Lago master-planned community, Villa Espada will offer up to 300 apartments. It's an area that developer Mark Tolley said is already starting to see signs of increased demand for multi-

family living.

“We believe that the market has matured to a point down there that justifies standard, market-rate apartments to serve the job generators in the area,” said Tolley, the director of residential services for 210 Developers.

He pointed to the projected growth of enrollment and faculty at the university and Eagle Ford-related ventures.

City Council is expected to vote Thursday on a measure that would grant the developer an incentive package worth about $1.7 million for the project. Incentives include about $1.087 million in tax rebates over 10 years, $56,970 in city fee waivers and $552,000 in SAWS fee waivers.

The property is currently outside the Inner City Reinvestment Infill Policy boundaries. But 210 Developers was deemed eligible for incentives because it filed for them in December, a month before the boundaries were changed.

The firm will not pursue county incentives, Tolley said.

This month, 210 Developers plans to begin work on the Peanut Factory Lofts, a 98-unit apartment community near the University of Texas at San Antonio campus downtown. That project was granted about $1.4 million in city incentives.

If the incentives are approved for Villa Espada, Tolley said he expects construction to start within three months and could be complete by late 2014.

The average cost for an apartment in that area is about 92 cents per square foot, according to data from multifamily research firm Austin Investor Interests. Apartments at Villa Espada are expected to average about $1.10 per square foot, Tolley said.

He said 20 percent of the proposed units would be dedicated as student housing. Despite the firm's reading of demand in the area, developer Walt Busby, who owns about 277 acres near the university, said it might too early for a rush of multifamily housing.

“You don't have the robust market on the South Side for single-family or multifamily (housing) that you do anywhere else in the city,” said Busby, a partner at San Antonio-based Turner-Busby Developments. “But it's getting there. It's better than it ever has been.”